


Tea with Barnett

by FrancescaMonterone



Series: Singularities Verse [2]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Academy Era, Admiral Barnett smells a conspiracy, Asexual Character, Cake, Chris defends his recruitment of Jim, Jim may be in danger, M/M, Recruitment, Secrets, Starfleet Academy, Tarsus IV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-25
Updated: 2017-02-25
Packaged: 2018-09-26 20:51:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9921662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrancescaMonterone/pseuds/FrancescaMonterone
Summary: "I know it's fucking classified, how many times do you think I've tried to get access to those files?! Somebody somewhere is trying to cover something up, and its big. Well, guess what. Jim Kirk reappeared. And he's entering the Academy."And there's nothing you can do about it, because he passed all the tests.Barnett sighed. "This is a very bad idea, Captain Pike." He looked down at the PADD, and his eyebrows went up. "McCoy did his medical exam? Is this a conspiracy?"Actually... yes.





	

Admiral Richard Barnett had been promoted to Admiral and Head of the Academy Board a year before Chris had returned to San Francisco. Since nobody in their right mind would have voluntarily served in that capacity, Starfleet grapevine held that there had been strings attached to Barnett's promotion, but nobody seemed to know exactly what sort of strings.

Maybe it was all just gossip. Maybe Barnett actually believed in what he was doing, maybe he enjoyed being responsible for Starfleet's next generation. You wouldn't have been able to say so from his demeanor, because he held himself detached and aloof, hardly ever appearing in public outside of official functions.

Chris had never met Barnett prior to his return to San Francisco, had never served with him, and even after three years he didn't quite know what to make of him. They were almost the same age, Barnett a couple of years younger, but their fundamentally different approach to regulations and the chain of command - Barnett embraced and embodied both, while Chris wriggled, chafed, and ignored where he could - had led to one rising swiftly through the ranks and serving in a multitude of academic and administrative capacities, while the other had spent most of his time in the 'Fleet out in space.

It made their interactions difficult. They both tried to show each other due respect, and to value each other's opinions, but more often than not, 'agree to disagree' was all they managed to settle on. Negotiations were usually tedious. Chris didn't appreciate Barnett's rigidness any more than Barnett appreciated his laissez-faire attitude towards his recruits.

Their roles forced them to cooperate; and the fact that Chris' mandate as special recruitment officer pretty much obliged him to frequently recruit cadets with special needs (euphemistically phrased), who then went on to cause trouble at the Academy, meant that he got a lot of face-time with Barnett. It was like being unwilling co-parents to a whole lot of children.

It therefore came as no surprise to find a meeting request from the Admiral in his inbox as soon as he had returned to San Francisco. With a soft sigh, Chris resigned himself to his fate and made his way to Barnett's office, which had a spectacular view overlooking the bay and was as stark and impersonal as a hospital room.

"Captain Pike," Barnett said with a small smile, shaking his hand, "welcome back."

"Thank you, sir."

"Good trip?" Barnett asked, leading him to the gray-in-gray lounge area by the window.

"You tell me," Chris said, with a hint of wry humor. "I trust you reviewed the list of recruitments."

"That I did," Barnett said, after they had both taken a seat. "Before we get started - tea, coffee? Cake? Better say yes, you're going to need it."

Chris raised his eyebrows at him, and Barnett huffed. "Come on. Jim Kirk? You didn't really think you could slip that one past me, did you? But we'll talk about him later."

He sent his yeoman for coffee and, presumably, cake, and bent forward slightly, calling up the list on his PADD. "Let's do this from the top up. Markoš, Delgado, and Sandmann, no issues there, they're all sound recruitments and will make nice additions to this year's class. I support your suggestion of putting Sandmann's prior experience to good use and enrolling her in advanced piloting classes immediately. Hendorff, well that one surprised me, he's not your usual material is he?"

Barnett looked at Chris quizzically.

Chris shrugged. "Houston recruitment office suggested it. He passed the exam, and he was on his way to San Francisco anyway, so we took him along for the ride."

"There's nothing _special_ about him?"

"You sound suspicious," Chris noted, amused. "No. Not that I know of." _Well. If you overlook the fact that he's a bit of an idiot and too quick to raise his fists. The first is probably incurable, but if I know Commander Wright, she'll beat the latter out of him._ Security track was not for the faint of heart - or people who valued physical integrity.

"Good." Barnett made a note on his PADD. "Now... Karimi and Cooper, okay. I'm still not sure recruiting a dyslexic is a sensible thing to do, but we've been over that with Kelly, and admittedly, she turned out fine. Excellent work on the Farley brothers, Engineering will be thrilled. Anything I should know about them?"

"They're a bit quiet. Introverts, takes a while to draw them out of their shells. Not unusual in their field, I believe. Michael gets hostile if anyone interrupts him while he's working, but he controls his temper if Vincent is around - he is the elder. "

Barnett looked surprisingly unconcerned. "Well, to be blunt, we don't want them to chat up people, we want them to fiddle with computers and sophisticated machinery, so who cares if they have a few rough edges. Have you ever met Archer's teaching assistant, Montgomery Scott? He's a real piece of work..."

"I'm told he is quite brilliant, though."

Barnett waved a negligent hand. "Yes, yes, no doubt. But that proves my point, engineers don't necessarily need to be sociable."

His yeoman arrived with coffee and slices of raspberry-chocolate tarte, and Barnett thanked him in a distracted fashion, still poring over the list.

"Now, Uhura - she is something else entirely. Congratulations. If her aptitude tests are anything to go by, she will make a very fine officer." He looked up, obviously pleased.

Chris nodded. "I have high hopes for her."

"Archer wants to meet her," Barnett said out of the blue.

Chris frowned. "He is retired and only teaching one engineering class for the fun of it; what does he want with a communications specialist?"

"Well, let me put it this way," Barnett said, leaning back in his chair, cup in hand. "She's a very clever and pretty young woman with a remarkable talent for languages, set to become a communications officer. Does that vaguely remind you of anyone?"

He should have seen it himself. "Hoshi Sato."

Archer's communications officer on the _Enterprise_ , and close personal friend. He had looked after her when she had been a child, and in all honesty never really stopped doing so, even after she had retired from Starfleet to become the Head of the Federation's Language and Interpreting Service.

"Precisely," Barnett said. "Much as we love and revere Jonathan Archer, he can be a sentimental old fool. He loved that woman. Uhura reminds him of her. My bet is, he wants to set her up with a fellowship, since he is on the board of the Sato Foundation."

Chris gave another shrug. "Let him. She's a good candidate, and it certainly wouldn't be wasted on her."

If Archer wanted to take Nyota under his wing, more power to him. It never hurt to have friends in high places, and places didn't get much higher in Starfleet than Admiral Jonathan Archer.

Barnett gave a slow not. "Very well. I'll speak to him." He peered at the list again. "Dubois and Romoli, fine. Zarges, well, we'll have to see how his disability impacts his studies, but his scores are certainly very promising. Stefanopoulos - did he cheat on his written exam?"

"It was a misunderstanding," Chris said evenly. "We sorted it out. There's a report attached to his file, if you need it."

Barnett gave a sigh. "Fine. Henley, good. El Arabi, good. McCoy..." He looked up. "Now that one I'm curious about. It says here that Atlanta recruited him, but you personally went there to pick him up? And almost as soon as his name entered the system, the Dean of Starfleet Medical sent me a message saying _'Tell Pike that one's mine'_." He frowned, looking a bit pained. "Well, you know Dean Nurmi."

Chris did, and he had to suppress a smile. Apparently, he was not very successful, because Barnett caught him and frowned. "Why did you go to Atlanta?"

It was like facing the Spanish Inquisition.

Better not to show any weakness now, Chris knew that he was balancing on the edge in his relationship with Leonard, and Barnett was sure to disapprove.

Calmly, he said: "I already knew him. In fact, he's a close personal friend." _Among other things..._

"Oh." Barnett seemed surprised. "Well. In any case, he seems to have impressed a lot of people over at Medical." He put the PADD down and looked straight at Chris, eyes slightly narrowed. "How close...?"

_Here goes..._

"Frankly, sir, that's none of your business." Chris held his gaze, unimpressed. He had stared down people far more intimidating than Admiral Richard Barnett.

After a moment, Barnett sighed. "I'm a bit disappointed. I thought you didn't do that."

Chris ate a piece of cake, considering. "Would you care to elaborate, sir?" He enjoyed making Barnett squirm. So sue him.

"Relationships with cadets."

Chris set the plate down, noticing the irony. Cake, fitting. "You thought that I wouldn't enter into a relationship with a cadet because of my sexual orientation, or because of my moral integrity?" He resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"Both, actually."

"In that case, I am slightly less offended. Okay, to spell this out: I am [asexual](http://www.asexuality.org/?q=overview.html), but that only means that I probably won't sleep with him. It doesn't preclude a relationship. I'll spare you the detailed explanation, feel free to read up on it anytime." The statement was bordering on insolent, but Chris was annoyed.  "I didn't recruit him, the relationship actually predates the recruitment, and I am not going to teach him. That should suffice. We're not breaking any rules."

"It makes you vulnerable," Barnett warned. He probably didn't mean to sound patronizing, but he did.

"Then I'll take that. You know that I thrive on adversity," Chris replied sarcastically. "At least, that's what it says in my psych evaluation, which you've probably read."

"Multiple times," Barnett said drily. "Usually when I'm considering one of your more exotic recruitments and trying to figure out if you're actually insane or just insanely reckless. Speaking of which - James Kirk? What in the world possessed you to recruit James Kirk?!"

"I looked at his aptitude tests and saw a very capable young man." Chris managed to keep a straight face, but barely.

"Ha, ha." Barnett said, without any humor. "Try that again. Captain, everyone knows that you've been obsessively looking for Kirk junior ever since he disappeared after the unfortunate Tarsus Event."

"Is that what we are calling it now?" Chris growled. "Cute. Next thing you know, we'll be calling the Holocaust 'a slight misunderstanding'."

"I know that you have issues with the way Starfleet handled that one..." Barnett began, but Chris cut him off.

"Issues? Yes, I do have _'issues'_ with the fact that Starfleet was more concerned with saving face than saving lives. It's disgraceful. And what about the survivors? How come they all mysteriously vanished?"

"That's classified."

God, Chris wanted to _hit_ him.

"I _know_ it's fucking classified, how many times do you think I've tried to get access to those files?! Somebody somewhere is trying to cover something up, and its big. Well, guess what. Jim Kirk reappeared. And he's entering the Academy."

_And there's nothing you can do about it, because he passed all the tests._

Barnett sighed. "This is a very bad idea, Captain Pike." He looked down at the PADD, and his eyebrows went up. " _McCoy_ did his medical exam? Is this a conspiracy?"

_Actually... yes._

"He's free to choose his own doctor."

"And he just so happened to choose the one you are in a relationship with." Barnett's look was laced with deep disapproval. "If this blows up in your face, I can't protect you."

"I don't need your protection, sir," Chris fumed.

"Well, I hope you're right, because this is above my paygrade." He crossed his arms and leaned forward a bit. "If your quest for justice, or whatever this is, endangers my cadets, I am going to personally see to it that you are demoted and spend the rest of your life grounded, _do you hear me, Pike?_ "

Chris had to admit, he was a bit impressed. So Barnett actually _did_ care. It wasn't just a career posting to him. Huh.

"Loud and clear."

"Wonderful," Barnett said sarcastically. "How am I supposed to explain to the Board that Jim Kirk has entered the Academy?"

"I'm sure you'll find a way, sir." _That's your problem._

"Let me rephrase that," Barnett said, "if Cadet Kirk turns up face-down and stone cold in his dormitory one morning, how do I explain that to the Board?"

Chris stared at him. Was Barnett trying to tell him something?

Barnett held his gaze and nodded.

Oh. Well, that changed things. "I'll have an eye on him."

"Two. I'm making you his academic adviser, whether you want it or not. He's your mess, so you deal with him."

Chris nodded. He hadn't expected anything else, really, and would have asked for the job anyway.

"And I think he would benefit from being assigned to one of the larger dorms, Neptune House, maybe?" Barnett continued, his expression a bit too impassive to be natural. "He has a history of antisocial behavior that's not compatible with Starfleet values, I think he should spend as much time around the other cadets as possible, maybe that'll help him learn to play nice. Day and night."

_Read: make sure he's never alone. Whoever wishes him harm might be deterred from action if he's surrounded by others._

"Find him a suitable roommate, preferably somebody with advanced combat training, Kirk seems to enjoy provoking fights. Might do him good to be knocked on his ass a few times."

Barnett wanted him to assign a bodyguard to Jim? Because that was what it boiled down to. He did seem to think that there was a really possibility somebody would try to assassinate Jim Kirk while he was at the Academy. It was a chilling thought.

"I will follow your suggestions, sir." Chris replied with a straight face, wondering if the conversation was being recorded, and by whom.

"Good," Barnett said. "Now go and deal with your latest batch of troublemakers, and send Cadet Uhura my way sometime soon so that I can introduce her to Admiral Archer. Dismissed."

When he left the office, Chris felt as if there was a piece of cake lodged somewhere in his throat.

Who had it in for Jim Kirk, and would they really try to kill him?

Barnett seemed to know more about it, but he was obviously constricted by some sort of gag rule and/or somebody held something over his head.

 _Well, he's right about one thing,_ Chris thought grimly, _this is my mess and I need to sort it out._


End file.
